Friday, February 4, 2011

The last week was an interesting one. Purdue had its second snow recess in 5 years. Before January of 2007, Purdue hadn't closed for snow since 1985. You'd think since I had a little time off I would have posted a blog or two. Well, I got busy being lazy. Anyway, it's Friday and I do have a few new fragments to share with you.

-Spray on skin! It is here (warning-graphic link...click here for a less graphic one) and it could change burn victims lives. Essentially it uses stem cells to regrow live skin cells over a wound. Exciting stuff, let's just hope the whole "stem cell" thing doesn't hold it back.

-Even if you don't believe in UFOs you should watch this clip. It is of three simultaneously taken shots by different people of a UFO over Jerusalem this last week. If it is photo-shopped, it's pretty good. If not, I'm still not convinced there are aliens coming to earth but something fishy is going on here. It gets good about 45 seconds in.

-If you haven't heard by now, IBM made a computer to play Jeopardy. It's name is Watson and it will be facing off against old champions in the middle of February. Try you hand at playing against the super-computer at this link to the NY Times. It is pretty impressive and has a similar set-up to the Steele computer that I talked about earlier. The caveat is that it is NOT connected to the internet. All the information that it must find is stored inside the computer's hard drive. Talk about your ultimate encyclopedia.

Lastly, I would like to send my condolences to to the family and friends of Mrs. Sharon Gibson. She passed away earlier this week after battle cancer for over 20 years. Mrs. Gibson was a Latin teacher at my high school but she was definitely more than that to all of her students. She was one of the most influential people in my life as well as many of my friends from high school. Each and every student of her's was important and she believed in each and every one of us. I still remember her giving us lectures on integritas (integrity) and I can honestly say that I continue to live my life with integrity each day because of her. We love you Mrs. Gibson and your legacy with live forever!